By Alan Jones

WE have probably all had youthful fantasies about our future career, but I wonder how many of us would have included the ability to fill the biggest local theatrical venue of our home town with a capacity audience on a Saturday night?

It was a fitting tribute to the Bournemouth boy who once busked outside Dingles, then went on to turn music from a spectator sport into something in which we can all participate.

To see all the pictures from last night's show click here

TV programmes such as The Choir: Military Wives showed how people with average voices can make a distinctly above-average sound.

But this was a different Malone: not just the inspirational choirmaster but also solo performer, duettist, songwriter and comedian.

His professional choir – eight women and seven men – sang to the accompaniment of a keyboard, with Gareth showing his musical prowess on guitar, bass guitar, and ukulele.

Their repertoire ranged from gentle and delightful songs like Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby to Mark Knopfler’s Brothers in Arms and Toto’s Africa.

The second half started with Gareth at the keyboard delivering solo songs and duets, followed by the choir doing a spirited and slightly tongue-in-cheek medley of all the Christmas songs that emerge from the woodwork at this time of year, with choristers dressed in a variety of Yuletide clobber.

The applause at the end of the show was rapturous following the appropriately-named encore - the evergreen Bond film song Nobody Does it Better.

And truly, nobody does.